The Kunstverein Bielefeld is delighted to present Les lèvres rouges, the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany by the French artist Julie Béna. The objects, installations, films and performances created by Béna address the forms of representation inherent to cultural narratives. Her works juxtapose motifs from art-historical, theatrical and literary contexts with those from mass media and popular entertainment, in order to interrogate the social determinants of the production and reception of the material. Her Bielefeld exhibition opens up a space of play in which illusion and reality are taken to the point of indistinguishability. In the midst of this enchantment, the spectator becomes all the more aware of societal power relations.
Working across both levels of the Kunstverein exhibition space, Béna develops a scenario populated by spiders, mice, fools, butterflies and flying phalluses, in an installation which ultimately has symbolic significance. Resisting the unequivocal, the piece works around the specifications of the exhibition space, undermining its supposed functionality. Here, the materiality of hand-made lacework collides with the technological nature of 3D-printed objects, while digital animated films are confronted with traditional puppet theater. Béna’s field of reference extends to pilgrim badges, among the earliest of visual mass media, and to panorama pictures, an early technology of popular art. Les lèvres rouges subverts fixed cultural definitions in order to imagine a different world calling dominant norms and meanings into question.
Julie Béna (born in Paris in 1982, lives and works in in Paris and Prague) has had recent solo exhibitions at Kunstraum London (2020), Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico, the Jeu de Paume Paris, CAPC Bordeaux and the Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris (all in 2019). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at L’Inconnue, Montreal, Drdova Galerie, Prague, the C Arte C, Madrid (all in 2019), BOZAR, Brussels, RUPERT, Vilnius, Chapter New York (all in 2018) and at M Leuven, Belgium (2017). In 2018, she participated in the Rennes Biennale.
KUNSTVEREIN BIELEFELD
Welle 61
33602 Bielefeld
Thu - So 12:00 – 18:00
Mo-Wed, by appointment
T +49 (0) 521.17 88 06
F +49 (0) 521.17 88 10
kontakt@kunstverein-bielefeld.de
Julie Béna, Bielefelder's Mice, 2020
Press information
Events:
-
14.02.2020, 19:00
OPENING – Les lèvres rouges by Julie Béna
Speakers:
Andreas Wannenmacher (Chairman, Kunstverein Bielefeld)
Marie Graftieaux (Head of the Bureau des arts plastiques, Institut français Germany)
Nadine Droste (Director, Kunstverein Bielefeld) -
15.02.2020, 15:00
EXHIBITION CONVERSATION
with Julie Béna
(in English language) -
16.02.2020, 17:00
EXHIBITION TOUR
through the exhibition LES LÈVRES ROUGES by Julie Béna with Nadine Droste
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29.02.2020, 10:00
CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY
Workshop with Klaus Braun
10:00–15:00
Contribution: 15 € -
22.04.2020, 17:35
Julie Béna: This Could be a Love Story (2020)
In cooperation with Montez Press Radio.
The texts of the feature were written in the context of the exhibition Les lèvres rouges by Julie Béna at Kunstverein Bielefeld. Following the release on Montez Press Radio, the sound piece will also be available on the Kunstverein website. -
05.07.2020, 17:00
EXHIBITION TOUR
through the exhibition LES LÈVRES ROUGES by Julie Béna with Nadine Droste